Reforming campaign finance

In response to Phil, it is my feeling that trying to restrict individuals or entities such as business or labor from directing money to the party they support has been counterproductive and futile. The history of campaign finance laws shows that the result is only that lawyers find ways around the laws, just as they do with taxes, and the sources of money only become more opaque. I would get rid of the laws restricting corporate and union contributions to parties entirely. On the other hand I do support restrictions on contributions to individual candidates. I would make it a law that all contributions to political campaigns must be funneled through the party organizations. No individual candidate could solicit or accept direct contributions from anyone. This would be considered bribery. Besides making the laws simpler and easier to enforce, I would expect that the party organizations would be able to buffer the influence of individual contributions. Contributors are always going to want to influence the direction of legislation--this is appropriate and proper--but they should be able to do so only through a party, which has to coordinate the entire range of interests of all the contributors.